336 SMITH'S LARK-BUNTING. 



inch; all the outer veins delicately edged with white. Tail emarginate, two 

 inches and one-eighth in length, with the outer feather on each side white. 

 The second white also, but having a longitudinal line of brownish-black on 

 the inner side reaching nearly the whole length. 



Bill along the ridge ^ inch, brownish above, paler below; along the edge 

 f , to pinion 1 T 9 ^; wing from flexure 3^; bill to end of tail 6, to end of claws 

 6fV; alar extent 10i; tarsus ^; middle toe -§, its claw i; hind toe ^-, its claw 

 ^. Legs, feet and claws light yellowish-flesh colour, and transparent. 



The female is very little smaller and precisely like the male. The young 

 when fully fledged resemble the parents, but have all the upper plumage 

 more distinctly marked. 



FAMILY XV.*— FRINGILLIN^E. FINCHES. 

 Genus I.f— PLECTROPHANES, Meyer. LARK-BUNTING. 



SMITH'S LARK-BUNTING. 



Plectrophanes Smithii, Jlud. 



PLATE CCCCLXXXVIL— Male. 



This species was discovered by my companions, Edward Harris and J. 

 G. Bell, during an excursion on the prairies of Illinois, in the vicinity of 

 Edwardsville. Several specimens were procured by those gentlemen, and 

 the following account of its habits has been handed to me by Mr. Bell. 

 He says — 



"We found these birds very abundant on the low prairie, near a lake in 

 Illinois, about seven or eight miles distant from Edwardsville, whilst engaged 

 in shooting Ducks, Geese, and American Snipes. They were generally in 

 large flocks, and when on the ground they at once began to scatter and 

 divide themselves, rendering it difficult for us to kill more than two at one 

 shot; they run very nimbly, and in a manner resembling that of the Bay- 



* See vol. iii. p. 49. t Ibid. 



